What's Your Poison & What's the Strangest Place You've Ever Traveled To?
Oct 22nd, 2005, 06:43 PM
#41
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That's interesting to me that it makes some people feel creepy!
My youngest son is studying Urban Planning and touts those type communities (everything walkable) as the desired concept! He goes around pointing out Urban Sprawl with ridicule!
I can't wait to tell him some people find such areas creepy!
Belle
My youngest son is studying Urban Planning and touts those type communities (everything walkable) as the desired concept! He goes around pointing out Urban Sprawl with ridicule!
I can't wait to tell him some people find such areas creepy!
Belle
Oct 22nd, 2005, 07:14 PM
#42
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The design is good - the perfection is what makes it creepy.
Celebration - good design - replica of mixed use in commercial / small town setting. Residential units above commercial, etc. But, this version doesn't look (or feel) ANYTHING like families living above storefronts of yore - or present day elsewhere.
Seaside - walkable community with front porches designed for use that are close enough to sidewalks to see and greet walking neighbors. Parking of vehicles (in both communities) in back of house accessed by alleys - again, replicas of city /alley design of past.
It's just the actual execution is too perfect. HOA gone wild - or bad, I suppose.
Celebration - good design - replica of mixed use in commercial / small town setting. Residential units above commercial, etc. But, this version doesn't look (or feel) ANYTHING like families living above storefronts of yore - or present day elsewhere.
Seaside - walkable community with front porches designed for use that are close enough to sidewalks to see and greet walking neighbors. Parking of vehicles (in both communities) in back of house accessed by alleys - again, replicas of city /alley design of past.
It's just the actual execution is too perfect. HOA gone wild - or bad, I suppose.
Oct 22nd, 2005, 07:48 PM
#43
First, understand I mean no ill will to Celebrationists. And as a reformed university teacher of city planning I need to offer a disclaimer that I'm an opinionated old f**t.
We visited Celebration when it was only a couple of years old, and the following things helped the creepy feelings -
The "new urbanism" (every town a village, every village raising a child) as practiced at Seaside and many more places designed in the 80s and 90s was expanded in Celebration to embrace Walt Disney's (personal) vision of small town America. (Celebration, or something like it, was an idea Walt took to his grave.) Not just physically evocative of a never-was America, but socially managed to a fair-thee-well. School board not selected by the residents, but by the Disney organization, in cahoots with a couple of education departments from prominent and not-so-prominent universities. Health care provided by Disney and a group of Disney-selected health providers. City council (initially) partly voted in, partly appointed by... you guessed it;
The marketing materials we picked up - the usual eyewash with drawings of kids with balloons - had - er - no representation of persons of color;
The marketing person we spoke to was so stiff and chirpy that honest to God I was looking for the wires. "Imagineering?"
The shops and restaurants on the main street? Names picked from Disney movies, e.g., Luigi's Italian restaurant (Lady, meet Tramp.)
The retro-designed (by IM Pei no less) movie theatre? Only Disney films.
Broadband internet cabling (2-way) installed in every home, years before the rest of the world got it. Purpose? To facilitate "community dialogue." (This was right after a remake of "1984" had just played on TV. Big Mickey is watching you?)
And finally, you exited Celebration by driving down an idyllic white-fenced road with noble trees and white horses in green fields, until you hit...Kissimmee, world capital of TGI Fridays next to KFC next to Muffler World... you get it. America.
Now this was several years ago and things may well have changed and matured. But for all its designs (which were excellent in architectural and "planning," terms, or at least those au courant in the 90s) the place was way too controlled by the founders and took artificiality to new heights. Creepy was kind.
Just my not very HO.
We visited Celebration when it was only a couple of years old, and the following things helped the creepy feelings -
The "new urbanism" (every town a village, every village raising a child) as practiced at Seaside and many more places designed in the 80s and 90s was expanded in Celebration to embrace Walt Disney's (personal) vision of small town America. (Celebration, or something like it, was an idea Walt took to his grave.) Not just physically evocative of a never-was America, but socially managed to a fair-thee-well. School board not selected by the residents, but by the Disney organization, in cahoots with a couple of education departments from prominent and not-so-prominent universities. Health care provided by Disney and a group of Disney-selected health providers. City council (initially) partly voted in, partly appointed by... you guessed it;
The marketing materials we picked up - the usual eyewash with drawings of kids with balloons - had - er - no representation of persons of color;
The marketing person we spoke to was so stiff and chirpy that honest to God I was looking for the wires. "Imagineering?"
The shops and restaurants on the main street? Names picked from Disney movies, e.g., Luigi's Italian restaurant (Lady, meet Tramp.)
The retro-designed (by IM Pei no less) movie theatre? Only Disney films.
Broadband internet cabling (2-way) installed in every home, years before the rest of the world got it. Purpose? To facilitate "community dialogue." (This was right after a remake of "1984" had just played on TV. Big Mickey is watching you?)
And finally, you exited Celebration by driving down an idyllic white-fenced road with noble trees and white horses in green fields, until you hit...Kissimmee, world capital of TGI Fridays next to KFC next to Muffler World... you get it. America.
Now this was several years ago and things may well have changed and matured. But for all its designs (which were excellent in architectural and "planning," terms, or at least those au courant in the 90s) the place was way too controlled by the founders and took artificiality to new heights. Creepy was kind.
Just my not very HO.
Oct 22nd, 2005, 08:13 PM
#44
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I never thought of creepy but I do think of Sad when I see places like Seaside and these planned communities. They lose all character and personality. My favorite neighborhoods are a mix of styles and colors, some houses grand and in your face and others hidden behind a high hedge, some modest and some with gardens that make you want to live in them.
When someone plans it all out , down to the fence and the mailbox, it has lost being warm and homey and is just another sterile sad place.
Also MHO
When someone plans it all out , down to the fence and the mailbox, it has lost being warm and homey and is just another sterile sad place.
Also MHO
Oct 24th, 2005, 07:36 AM
#46
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Statia's Shopping News Flash
Sorry I'm late... I just found the photo saved on my computer at work with the street address!
Gioielli R.T. Murano (store name)
Two locations both close to each other -
Fondamenta Vetrai #60
or
Fondamenta Manin #81
Murano
e-mail [email protected]
Phone #s
I hope I'm not too late!!
Sorry I'm late... I just found the photo saved on my computer at work with the street address!
Gioielli R.T. Murano (store name)
Two locations both close to each other -
Fondamenta Vetrai #60
or
Fondamenta Manin #81
Murano
e-mail [email protected]
Phone #s
I hope I'm not too late!!
Oct 24th, 2005, 07:42 AM
#47
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If anyone has an e-mail address for Statia, would you let her know that I made the post above. I believe she has already left for her trip and I'm unsure if she will check in on the board. I figured an e-mail to her would be helpful.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Oct 24th, 2005, 10:22 AM
#50
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moldy (love the name, by the way),
Just as I sent Statia your list I received a message from her saying that they made it to Venice safely and were just relaxing that first evening after their 19 hour journey. If she didn't see my message this time, I'll bet she'll be checking again soon.
Just as I sent Statia your list I received a message from her saying that they made it to Venice safely and were just relaxing that first evening after their 19 hour journey. If she didn't see my message this time, I'll bet she'll be checking again soon.
